Upper Cuero Creek Settlement

The Upper Cuero Creek Settlement, the second oldest settlement in what is now DeWitt County, was established in 1827 near present Cuero. It postdated the earlier Irish Creek Settlement (see VERHELLE, TEXAS) by one year and was originally in DeWitt's Colony. In 1836 it fell within the boundaries of the newly created Gonzales County. The John McCoy family arrived as the first DeWitt colonists in March 1827, Kimber Barton followed in 1829, and by 1840 six more families had settled there. About 1840 a post office was established in the George Blair home, and the community had a store, a local club to give plays, and a log schoolhouse, which was also used for services by a Methodist circuit rider named Joseph Perkins Sneed. Sneed was described as "a man who is not afraid to die or sleep in the woods." Cumberland Presbyterian missionaries organized the first church at the community in June 1841; a log structure, the earliest church in DeWitt County, was built in 1846. Residents fled in the wake of the Mexican invasions of 1842, and though most had returned by 1845, no businesses were resumed. The school continued to provide a community focus, and after annexation the old settlement provided the nucleus for the new town of Concrete, where Concrete College operated until 1881.